Protein optimisation specialist Alligator Bioscience and SARomics have signed a deal under which Alligator will offer the services performed by SARomics as part of its portfolio.
In addition, Alligator will apply SARomics' technology and know-how in conjunction with its own technology platform in order to decrease the time both internal and external projects take.
SARomics specialises in finding and exploring structure-activity-relationships (SAR) in both small molecule-based and protein-based drug discovery projects. The Swedish firm has developed a technology platform consisting of both proprietary methods and commercial software for protein modeling, computational chemistry, and quantitative protein sequence-activity modeling activities.
Meanwhile, Alligator, also based in Lund, Sweden, uses its proprietary FIND technology to develop new drugs and optimise existing therapeutic and diagnostic proteins.
Also in the news recently, Indivumed has penned a service contract with Roche Diagnostics.
Within this agreement, Indivumed will apply its automated immunohistochemistry service platform for analysing various biomarkers and drug targets in the area of oncology.
For this specific project with Roche, the German firm will provide a selection of tumour tissue sections from its tumour biobank as well as specifically collected clinical samples.
The firm's current tumour biobank of over 6500 patient-cases, collected with a mean cold ischemia time of less than eight minutes, serves as a resource for Indivumed's internal cancer research in biomarkers and primary cell drug screening as well as for the use of pharmaceutical and biopharma partners through tumour biobank access and IHC services.
Meanwhile, Phase 0 specialist Xceleron has secured a microdosing contract with Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel.
UK-based Xceleron will conduct a three-compound human microdose study for Organon. The three selected drug candidates are all compounds that have emerged from Organon's R&D pipeline. The purpose of the phase 0 trial is to quickly assess all important pharmacokinetic properties of the compounds whilst confirming the scalability of the microdose to pharmacological dose for these compounds, the firms said in a statement.
"Increasingly, leading pharmaceutical companies are adopting Xceleron's new drug development strategies to maximise data on compounds in the exploratory clinical development phase", said Xceleron CEO Professor Colin Garner.
David Nicholson, executive vice-president research & development of Organon commented: "The most compelling reason for using human microdosing is the speed with which we can gain results from human studies to make pivotal decisions".